Checkpoint: Code of Ethics

1. “Imagine that you are starting your own company. What will be the ethical code of your
company?”

Ethical Code of Conduct:

a) Trust confidence and credibility

Employees need to conduct themselves in such a manner that promotes good

relation and co-operation between them and within the work environment as well.
The public confidence in a company is largely a result of combined accomplishment
of all the employees. Therefore, employees need to deal with their peers in a
balanced and fair way.

b) Integrity

The core value of code of ethics is integrity. Employees need to adhere with
high standard behavior (candidness and honesty) in their course of action and in their
relationships, with their fellow workers.

c) Objectivity and Impartiality

Course of action taken by every employee should be impartial and objective

oriented. This implies that employees should behave in a way that in no way
diminishes the ethical value and standards of the other person.

d) Political neutrality

Political activities often lead to professional conflicts therefore employees

need to be neutral in this case and mustn’t involve themselves in political or other
conflict creating activities.

e) Conflict of interest

Employees mustn’t use their official status for their personal purposes and
must also avoid those activities that involve the risk of corruption or any other
activity that may defame the organization.

2. “Write a 200- to 300-word ethical code of conduct listing the rules and principles that
your company will use in decision making.”

Framework for ethical decision making

Ferrel, Fredrich and Ferell (2009) suggest that as a guide in deciding on a course
of action, follow these steps and ask yourself these questions:
a) Recognition of the particular issue, concern, or the event:

The employer must assess the whole situation in which he/she is obliged to
identify or recognize the specific concerning issue as to whether there is any ethical
impact upon the decision which he/she is supposed to take.

b) Analysis of the situation before a particular action

The analysis of the situation demands the ethical decision make to clarify the
exact issue, the main problem; the causes of the problem, the consequences, end
results and outcomes of the actions and the parties and the stakeholders that may be
affected because of ethical decision.

c) Decision of a particular course of action

This is a decision making step in which the decider has to determine his role and
responsibility, evaluate all the relevant facts, figures and the information regarding
the dilemma, assess the element of the risks involved in that particular decision and
the ultimate desired course of action to minimize and mitigate those risks, and
eventually decide the best course of course of action to resolve the dilemma.

d) Verification of the decision take

In the verification step, the decider verifies the decision that he/she has taken
by way of reviewing and monitoring the consequences of the action, and takes the
corrective actions when he/she finds any deviation from the original decision.

e) Progression of the decision with confidence

This step involves the communication and justification of the decision to the
concerned stakeholders and clarifications of the points and reservations which are
popped up by the stakeholders relevant to the case.

3. “Provide a brief explanation of why you selected each rule and principle.”

The above mentioned each rule and principle is selected in order to avoid
workplace conflicts and also to maintain the reputation of the company. There many
instances where unethical, illogical and illegal behavior of employees caused disasters to
the companies, therefore maintaining employees’ moral standards to a great extent is vital
for every organization.

References

Ferell, O.C., Fredrich, John and Ferell, Linda, Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making
and Cases. 7th ed. United States: Cengage Learning, 2009:47-49. Print.